Cognitive-Pragmatic Language Assessment for Normal Aging : Study of Assessment Tools and Content Validity

Cognitive-pragmatic language ability decreases during the normal aging process. Evaluating the ability might be useful in testing predicting cognitive level and diseases such as dementia. The aim of this study is to analyze various assessment protocols for normal aging, and evaluate the content validity of the currently developing cognitive-pragmatic language test domains and items. Content Validity Index(CVI) was calculated based on ratings judged by 17 experts including speech-language pathologists and clinical psychologists. As a result, it was found that CVIs of all 7 domains including attention, memory, organization, reasoning, problem solving, executive function, pragmatic language were above .75. It was concluded that the test items contained the appropriate content validity to assess cognitive-pragmatic language for normal aging.ope

On the specificity of figurative language comprehension impairment in schizophrenia and its relation to cognitive skills but not psychopathological symptoms - Study on metaphor, humor and irony

People with schizophrenia have difficulty understanding figurative expressions, such as metaphors, humor or irony. The present study investigated the specificity of figurative language impairment in schizophrenia and its relation with cognitive and psychotic symptoms. It included 54 schizophrenia and 54 age and sex-matched healthy subjects who performed a cognitive screening (ACE-III) and figurative language comprehension task consisting of 60 short stories with three types of endings: a figurative one and its literal and an absurd (meaningless) counterparts. Each figurative domain - metaphor, humor, irony - was split into two sub-domains, i.e., conventional and novel metaphors, intended-to-be-funny and social-norm-violation jokes, simple irony and critical sarcasm, respectively. The main findings are: i) in schizophrenia, figurative language deficit manifests itself in each domain; ii) the most pronounced subdomain-specific impairment has been found for novel vs conventional metaphors and irony vs sarcasm; iii) altered figurative language comprehension was related to diminished cognitive abilities but not to psychopathology symptoms (PANSS) or other clinical characteristics. This may suggest that figurative language impairment, as a specific part of communication deficit, may be regarded as an essential characteristic of schizophrenia, related to primary cognitive deficits but independent of psychopathology

Neural circuit of verbal humor comprehension in schizophrenia : an fMRI study

Individuals with schizophrenia exhibit problems with understanding the figurative meaning of language. This study evaluates neural correlates of diminished humor comprehension observed in schizophrenia. The study included chronic schizophrenia (SCH) outpatients (n = 20), and sex, age and education level matched healthy controls (n = 20). The fMRI punchline based humor comprehension task consisted of 60 stories of which 20 had funny, 20 nonsensical and 20 neutral (not funny) punchlines. After the punchlines were presented, the participants were asked to indicate whether the story was comprehensible and how funny it was. Three contrasts were analyzed in both groups reflecting stages of humor processing: abstract vs neutral stories - incongruity detection; funny vs abstract - incongruity resolution and elaboration; and funny vs neutral - complete humor processing. Additionally, parametric modulation analysis was performed using both subjective ratings separately. Between-group comparisons revealed that the SCH subjects had attenuated activation in the right posterior superior temporal gyrus (BA 41) in case of irresolvable incongruity processing of nonsensical puns; in the left dorsomedial middle and superior frontal gyri (BA 8/9) in case of incongruity resolution and elaboration processing of funny puns; and in the interhemispheric dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (BA 24) in case of complete processing of funny puns. Additionally, during comprehensibility ratings the SCH group showed a suppressed activity in the left dorsomedial middle and superior frontal gyri (BA 8/9) and revealed weaker activation during funniness ratings in the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (BA 24). Interestingly, these differences in the SCH group were accompanied behaviorally by a protraction of time in both types of rating responses and by indicating funny punchlines less comprehensible. Summarizing, our results indicate neural substrates of humor comprehension processing impairments in schizophrenia, which is accompanied by fronto-temporal hypoactivation

Utjecaj predočivosti na leksičko-semantičku obradu asocijacija u prvoj epizodi psihoze

U ovom diplomskom radu predstavljeno je istraživanje jezične produkcije i recepcije asocijacija s obzirom na leksičko-semantičko obilježje predočivosti kodispitanika sprvom epizodom i ranim početkom psihoze. Prvi dio rada je pregled dosadašnjih istraživanja i teorijskih perspektiva o jezičnim deficitima u psihozi. Istraživanja asocijacija upsihozi ishizofreniji su česta s obzirom na to da se opušteneasocijacije(engl. loose associations)smatraju jednim od prvih opisanih i dominantnih jezičnih obilježja oboljenja. Nadalje, riječi s niskim leksičko-semantičkim obilježjem predočivosti, za razliku od riječi s visokim, zahtijevaju veći kognitivni napor pri stvaranju mentalne slike i aktivaciji koncepata u semantičkom pamćenju. U drugom dijelu rada prikazano je istraživanje koje je uključilo dva zadatka, zadatak recepcije i zadatak produkcije, koji su konstruirani u njegovu svrhu na temelju postojeće baze psiholingvističkih leksičko-semantičkih obilježja (Erdeljac et al., 2018). Ispitivanje je provedeno na 12 ispitanika sprvom epizodom i ranim početkom psihozete 12 zdravih kontrolnih ispitanika. Kod ciljane skupine ispitanika, ispitanika sprvom epizodom i ranim početkom psihoze, u testu produkcije potvrđeno je drugačije procesiranje s obzirom na leksičko-semantičko obilježje predočivosti, te je na oba zadatka ciljana skupina imala duže vrijeme reakcije u odnosu na zdravu kontrolnu skupinu. Nadalje, u testu recepcije obje su skupine statistički značajno više odabirale visoko i srednje frekventne riječi u odnosu na nisko frekventne te je ciljana skupina imala duže vrijeme reakcije na visoko i srednje frekventne riječi u odnosu na nisko frekventne. Analiza rezultata provedena je u skladu s aktualnim psholingvističkim teorijama te dodatno potvrđuju teoriju da kod ispitanika sprvom epizodom i ranim početkom psihozedolazi do pretjerane aktivacije i smanjenja inhibicije pri širećoj aktivaciji u semantičkom pamćenju pri jezičnom procesiranju.This master thesis gives an overview of a study of language production and reception of associations depending on the lexical-semantic imageability feature in subjects with first episode and early course psychosis. First part of the thesis gives an overview of previous studies and theoretical perspectives on language deficits in psychosis. Studies on associationsin schizophreniaare numerous because looseassociations are one of the firstdescribedsymptoms and one of the most prominent language processing symptoms in schizophrenia(as part of psychosis). Furthermore, words withalow value of the lexical-semantic feature imageability, unlike words with high imageability, demand a higher cognitive effort in creation of their mental image and activation of concepts in the semantic memory. The second part of the thesis gives an overview of the study which included two tests, a language reception and production test, which were constructed for the purposeof the study on the basis of an existing database of psycholinguistic lexical-semantic features (Erdeljac et al., 2018). The study included 12 subjects with first episodeand early course psychosisand 12 healthy subjects for the control group. It was confirmed that the target group, subjects with first episode and early course psychosis, differently processes language on account of the imageability feature in the production test, and on both test the target group had longer reaction times than the healthy control group. Furthermore, in the reception test both groups chose statistically more associations that were of high and medium frequency, when compared to low frequency words, and the target group had longer reaction times on high and medium frequency words when compared to low frequency words. Results analysis was conducted according to actual psycholinguistic theories and further validated the theory that subjects with schizophrenia have an increased activation and a decrease of inhibition in spreading of activation in the semantic memory in language processing

A Novel Intervention Approach Focusing on Social Communicative Functioning in Patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder: Effects of a Specific Speech-Gesture Training on Quality of Life and Neural Processing

Dysfunctional social communication is one of the most stable characteristics in patients with schizophrenia that severely affects quality of life. Interpreting abstract speech and integrating nonverbal information is particularly affected. Considering the difficulty to treat communication dysfunctions with usual intervention, we investigated the possibility to improve quality of life and co-verbal gesture processing in patients with schizophrenia by applying a multimodal speech-gesture (MSG) training. In the MSG training, we offered eight sessions (60 min each) including perceptive and expressive tasks as well as meta-learning elements and transfer exercises to 29 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD). Patients were randomized to a waiting-first group (N=20) or a training-first group (N=9), and were compared to healthy controls (N=17). Outcomes were quality of life and related changes in the neural processing of abstract speech-gesture information, which were measured pre-post training through standardized psychological questionnaires and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, respectively. Pre-training, patients showed reduced quality of life as compared to controls but improved significantly during the training. Strikingly, this improvement was correlated with neural activation changes in the middle temporal gyrus for the processing of abstract multimodal content. Improvement during training, self-report measures and ratings of relatives confirmed the MSG-related changes. Together, we provide first promising results of a novel multimodal speech-gesture training for patients with schizophrenia. We could link training induced changes in speech-gesture processing to changes in quality of life, demonstrating the relevance of intact communication skills and gesture processing for well-being

The Metaphor Interpretation Test: Cognitive Processes Involved and Age Group Differences in Performance

It is well known that aging affects fluid cognitive processes while leaving crystallized processes largely intact. When it comes to language abilities, figurative language tends to be more associated with fluid abilities and literal language with more crystallized abilities. Fluid abilities involve short-term storage of information and mental manipulation, which are associated with metaphor interpretation. Eighty participants (40 adults over fifty years old, and 40 young adults) completed the Metaphor Interpretation Test (Iskandar & Baird, 2013). The test includes 17 items chosen from a list of metaphors by Katz et al. (1988). Answers were coded as abstract complete (AC), abstract partial (AP), concrete (CT), or other/unrelated (OT) response. On a multiple choice version of the test, each option represented one of these categories. Participants also completed cognitive tests measuring estimated verbal IQ, short-term memory, working memory, processing speed, mental flexibility, verbal abstraction, and visual abstraction. Overall, younger adults produced a greater number of and chose more AC responses on free and multiple-choice formats of the test, respectively, than older adults. Conversely, older adults produced a greater number of and chose more CT responses on free and multiple-choice formats, respectively, than younger adults. Several measures were associated with aspects of performance on the Metaphor Interpretation Test Verbal short-term memory span most often emerged as a predictor in these analyses. Co-varying on verbal short-term memory span eliminated age-group effects, while co-varying on estimated verbal IQ increased age group differences. Results suggest that aging adversely affects novel metaphor interpretation through age-related limitations in the ability to hold information in mind long enough to search for and link similar cognitive networks